The present invention relates to wrenches, and more particulary to a direction control arrangement for a reversible wrench, which is inexpensive to manufacture and easy to install.
A variety of wrenches including open-end wrenches, box-end wrenches, socket wrenches, hex-wrenches, ratchet wrenches, and etc. have been disclosed, and have appeared on the market. Nowadays, most wrenches are made reversible for convenient use. FIGS. from 1 through 3 show three different conventional reversible ratchet wrenches. These reversible ratchet wrenches are commonly have a direction control mechanism for controlling the working direction of the wrench. However, the direction control mechanism according to these reversible ratchet wrenches is expensive to manufacture and complicated to install. FIG. 4 shows a reversible thin-panel wrench. The direction control mechanism of this structure of reversible thin-panel does not eliminate the aforesaid drawbacks. FIG. 5 shows another structure of reversible thin-panel wrench. This wrench produces much noise during its operation.
The present invention has been accomplished under the circumstances in view. It is the main object of the present invention to provide a direction control arrangement for a reversible wrench, which is inexpensive to manufacture, and easy to install. According to one embodiment of the presnet invention, the direction control arrangement comprises a body defining a box and a transverse through hole across the box, two stop elements respectively mounted in the transverse through hole at two opposite sides of the box, two steel balls respectively mounted in two distal ends of te transverse through hole, two spring members respectively mounted in the transverse through hole and connected between the stop elements and the steel balls to push the stop elements and the steel balls outward in reversed directions, and a resilient retainer ring mounted on the body to stop the steel balls from escaping out of the body, the resilient retainer ring having two protruded receiving portions adapted to received the steel balls alternatively for controlling the working direction of the wrench. According to another embodiment of the present invention, the stop elements are respectively supported on the spring members and disposed at different elevationsl in the box inside the body.